In quest of water a sand puppet leaves the sand world in which it lives. It wanderes through other worlds made of paper, stone and iron, following the sound of dripping water. In the end the sand puppet manages to reach the water ... in a very tragic way.

This puppet animation film, supported by the German Federal Film Board and the Cultural Film Fund of the State of Hessian, was carried out by Thomas Stellmach (story, animation, production) and Tyron Montgomery (direction, direction of photography, screenplay) at the Animation Department at Kassel University.

It was shot frame by frame with an ARRI II BV and a self constructed single frame motor.

The position of the character, the flying paper, the falling stones and the rotating machines were manipulated and photographed 19.000 times and reviewed by video control.

The 12m² sets had to be rebuilt and altered 30 times, the 20m² background was replaced five times by various air brush designs. The mainly two men crew took 3/4 of a year to build the "metal" scenery.

CARTOON D'OR 96, best film of the European Animated Prize Winner Films, awarded by the European Association of Animation Film, Brussels, Belgium

Grand Prix for best school film 1997, European First Film Festival of Angers, France

GRAND PRIX of the European Short Film Competition 1997, Brussels, Belgium

Best Debut Film 1997, World Animation Film Festival, Pasadena, USA

Special Jury Prize 1997, Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival, France

ALVES COSTA PRIZE, Special Award of the Journalists, International Animation Film Festival Espinho, CINANIMA 96, PortugalFor the intensity, symbolism, for the suspense kept the end, for being a different film, for the original idea, and sound effects.

Golden Damby award International Animation EXPO Seoul 1997, Korea

Bronze Worldmedal 1997, New York Festival, USA

Best European Short Film, International Film Festival Cork 1996, IrlandThe Award for the Best European Short went to the outstanding German animation film "QUEST". This film presented a philosophical statement about mankind and its goals, the striving and searching of the human spirit for a personal answer; and it made this topic most accessible to a wide audience by its exceptionally artistic production design, photography, model animation and editing..

The Award for the Best European Short went to the outstanding German animation film "QUEST". This film presented a philosophical statement about mankind and its goals, the striving and searching of the human spirit for a personal answer; and it made this topic most accessible to a wide audience by its exceptionally artistic production design, photography, model animation and editing.

Grand Prix 1997, International Film Festival of Environment, "Green Vision", St. PetersburgThe opinion of the jury was unanimous. They all agreed that it is another level much higher than other films. Though it is a short animated film it poses all features of the big one. The history of a small man pushes us to think about the state of our environment and the responsibility of people to save their environment.